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FAST TALK
"We get these calls from telemarketers all the time," Petree said. "A guy that works in my shop took the call. He said, 'Some lady from ESPN called. I don't know whether she's trying to sell you a magazine or what, but here's the message.' "I laid the message on the desk and didn't call until the next day." Although the offer hit him completely by surprise, he agreed to do an audition and discovered that commenting on races came naturally. "I realized I enjoyed it," he said. "I look at it as a whole different career. I've got a lot of background in the sport, and I can put it to use and share it with the viewers."
"My role is to keep things, on the technical side, accurate," Petree said. "I can explain to the average viewer and to the die-hard fan the problems and the challenges in setting up these cars." Petree is well qualified to do that. He got his first full-time racing job in 1981, when he was hired by Junior Johnson to work on Darrell Waltrip's Buicks. From there, he went to Leo Jackson's race team, where in 1991, he led Harry Gant to four consecutive victories. In 1993, he joined Richard Childress Racing and was crew chief when the late Dale Earnhardt won back-to-back Cup titles in 1993-'94. Petree left Childress in 1996 and went back to Jackson's race team, which eventually became Andy Petree Racing, where he won races with Joe Nemechek and Bobby Hamilton before losing his sponsors and shutting down his shop in 2004. "My heart wasn't in it like it needed to be," Petree said of his decision to walk away from the sport in 2004. "We weren't as competitive as we needed to be. ... I just took the opportunity to step away from it for a little while. From 1981 through 2004, I'd spent my entire life in the garage area. It was a chance for me to spend some time with my daughter, Jonnie. … I didn't get to do that with my two sons, who are now grown." So while his former peers were traveling the continent, from one race track to another, Petree was following his daughter's softball team as it won state and regional championships. "I got to be there for every game," he said. "It was a special time for me." But now he's giving up the softball circuit and getting ready to make some hardball commentary behind the microphone. For starters, he, like others in the sport, already is raising questions about the Car of Tomorrow, which makes its competitive debut at Bristol this spring. "It's such a big question mark how that car is going to perform," he said. "We know how it looks, and I don't like the way it looks. … But I can get past that if these guys can race side by side and nose to tail. "That's going to be the biggest story of the year - whether that car is going to be a success or a failure." He's also wondering whether the Busch Series will produce a meaningful points race this year after a rout by Kevin Harvick in 2006. "Are we going to have a real championship race?" he said. "Harvick just ruined it last year. … Cup guys are going to be a big part of it again this year. Hopefully, one of the other Cup guys won't step in and do what he did." Petree says there's no doubt that whatever he says on the air will be backed up by hours of research in the garage.
"I'm going to work hard to understand exactly what these guys are doing, just as if I was still racing," he said. "And I'm going to share it with the viewers."
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